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Wednesday, 11 June 2003

And here we sit
in a wonderful scrubbing berth in Lezardrieux working hard with
cement and trowel………… but more of that later.

We finally left
Cherbourg and headed along the coast toward Cap de la Hague and on
toward Carteret. As with many of the harbours along this coast, timing
is everything as entry is controlled by a lock or sill. Of course we
had our fastest recorded speed ever of 10.7knots over the ground and
under No 1, stays’l and main we roared along the coast and down
past Alderney before the wind died and then headed us. The last hour
was spent plugging into a tide before finally gaining the sanctuary
of Carteret. We spent a few days there awaiting an improvement in the
weather and met an English couple who come from Hedge End, small
world etc. Conscious of the budget we left even tho the forecast was
promising 6 or 7’s, with gusts of 8, it didn’t disappoint!
Westerly winds meant Lezardrieux was always going to be difficult and
the slow going in the end had us turning south and into Granville.
The two problems we had here were: we didn’t really like the look
of the place and we had no passage chart to get us there. We managed
it with a lot of care and attention to sea states but the whole
experience was physically & mentally exhausting. Granville turned
out to be a good place, cheap and interesting with a free shower. We
bought a passage chart to cover the missing spots.

We left Granville
in misty, lumpy conditions and used “Henry” to help us make some
progress against headwinds and contrary tides. By late afternoon we’d
had enough, despite a visit from a school of dolphins and headed for
St. Cast picking up a buoy outside the harbour for a swell ridden
night before leaving early the following day for Lezardrieux. The
forecast was for 5 or 6 but we left with gentle 3 and sunshine and
made good progress despite the headwind. Closing the shoal waters off
Ile de Brehat the wind picked up to a 6 with us doing 7 knots + we
headed down the south side of Brehat toward the river. No problem
picking up the marks and under main and “Henry” we made it into
safety, serenity and a peaceful night’s kip, if only that’s how
the story went….

Tacking across
the narrow channel under main and engine we cleared the Rade de
Brehat and were NW of an isolated danger mark called Rompa. We’d
tacked each time as the depth dropped to 4 metres under the keel only
this time I took my eye off the sounder for a few seconds at the
wrong moment. Looking back the depth had dropped to 3.2 and as I
swung the tiller went down to 2.5…. I was about to shout to Bee
that we could have a problem when we heard a crashing sound, felt a
lurch to starboard, the bow rose ominously out of the water and all
forward movement stopped. The boat tilted upward toward a sunny, blue
sky, the stern was a foot lower in the water than it should be, the
exhaust note muffled by the water that covered it. Dropping the main,
no time for harbour stows now, we looked at each other in dismay. The
wind was blowing strongly onto the port bow and if we managed to get
off would simply pile us further onto other waiting rocks. A very
rapid check below showed no water in any of the bilges but with the
wind getting up and the tide beginning to flood we needed to work
quickly. The only luck in the whole scene had been the lurch to
starb’d as we found we could easily launch the dinghy over that
side, away from the wind and waves. Thanks be to Yamaha as without
the outboard the whole job would have been so much more difficult. We
lowered the Danforth, 10 metres of very heavy chain and 50 metres of
line into the dinghy and motored slowly away paying it all out.
Tipping the anchor over in a hurried fashion gave me a ripped finger
but once back aboard Bee slowly took up the strain and the anchor
held. Every time we have used that anchor and combination we have had
success but this was the most important to date. We waited. Every few
minutes I would go gently astern and in due course we came off. The
“only” damage we had been able to see was a long white gash on
the keel but how low down we couldn’t work out. Having sorted
ourselves out an hour and a half after running aground we set off
tentatively up river toward our nights destination. Subdued and dry
mouthed we followed the river watching the depth and twitching
nervously when it dipped below 10 metres. Had one attempt at
anchoring, dragged and picked up a nearby buoy for convenience before
eating and DRINKING at midnight.

The pilot book says Lez has a scrubbing hard...It
has. Its free, has both water and electric laid on and your boat sits
on a well drained concrete base. We had to wait until after the w/e
as we were still on neaps but 4am on Monday we made our way gingerly
onto the berth with 10 cms to spare. We’d met a French couple on
Saturday whilst out in the dinghy with Toots, invited them back to
Hannah and subsequently been taken out, by car, to a local Chateau
and the next port down river from here. Called Portrieux it offers
Hannah sized moorings for £250 a year. True you can only get out
when the lock gates opens and you are a long way from the sea but it
is very tempting. Anyway at 4 am there stood Philippe waiting to take
our lines as we nosed into the berth. Over a period of five days we repaired and
painted, found one side didn’t take and had to turn Hannah around,
more drama and once again Philippe was on hand to lend a much-needed
hand. People use the adjacent slipway to launch Ribs etc and seem
bemused at the sight of a scruffy couple, watched over by a
sunbathing cat, diligently mixing up a batch of cement. Once again
John & Minnie have reached out and provided a solution, as it was
their donation of quick drying cement that has enabled us to make the
repair. Today is, we hope, the last day on the berth. The sunshine is
wonderful as is the NE wind, all in all a day to be out and heading
for our next destination, Treguier.

A
couple of asides. So far we haven’t found French libraries to be as
Internet friendly as other countries so emails may be more sporadic
than we had hoped.

Toots seems to have adapted well. True,
when it gets lumpy she sometimes feels she should be allowed up top
where she can demonstrate her balancing skills by sitting on the self
steering bracket or leaning over the top of the capping rail. Both
these activities leave me anxious and Bee needs to hurriedly sweep
her below before I start bellowing. Toots has also started going
ashore and seems to spend most of the night wandering in our current
berth, chasing bats, eating flies or insects and seems to look
forward to the next mystery destination.

We
have settled into this trip much more quickly than the Danish one and
have, for the most part, enjoyed it more. Hannah goes extremely well
and gets lots of attention, including a free nights mooring from one
friendly harbourmaster.